Dr Zahid Chauhan – Ignore egg-traordinary chocolate claims

Brits will consume 80 million Easter eggs this year, with the average child doubling their recommended weekly calorie intake by eating on average, five chocolates eggs.

As a nation we are the fourth biggest consumers of chocolate in the world, but then with regular studies claiming chocolate can cure everything from high blood pressure to depression, surely it is okay to munch away?

Not so.

Such research is at best spurious, based on short-term effects, examining cocoa extracts rather than chocolate and sometimes being imaginatively interpreted.

An example of this would be the myth propagated in some sections of the media, that dark chocolate contains properties that can cure the blues.